Biography
Henri Simmen (b. Montdider, France 1879 - d. Nice, France 1963) originally trained as an architect but having studied with the French potter Edmond Lachenal (1855-1948) between 1900-10, he set up his own ceramic studio in Meudon, outside Paris. He produced saltgalze stoneware and also developed the copper red glaze after discovering the 'sang de boeuf' and 'hare hair' techniques, after a trip to China, Korea and Japan in 1919. He was also inspired by Buddhist texts and motifs. He married Mrs O' Kin who created spikes, caps, lids and engraved the wooden and ivory parts of his works. He exhibited at the Rouard Gallery in 1925 and was a medallist in 1925 but after a bout of illness in the early 1930s, he abandoned ceramics completely in 1937 and moved to Marseille. Ernest Marsh (1863-1945) bought a Brown Vase from the Brygos Gallery, London for the Contemporary Art Society in 1938 which was donated to what is now the The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery (PMAG), Stoke-on-Trent.
